Sister Marie was washing the linens for her sisters in the ‘Female Only’ side of the Sanctuary Light Monastery. Her duties were the same as the others, for before the Goddess all were equal. Today was her day to clean clothes and bed coverings, but she had really wanted to be at the side of the only female Hero that had been summoned. She knew of this Hero’s charm ability and wore the necklace that kept her from falling to it, but she had realized after several encounters with the girl that the necklace only lowered the charm’s potency, not eliminate it.
But she was fine with that. If she could bring the only female Hero into the Luminas faith, then she would be rewarded with a higher post. She may have been a nun, but that did not mean that she had no ambition. Unlike the others who had been inducted into the various convents as orphans or as babes, she was forced into the nunnery at the age of 14 after her noble family disowned her. It wasn’t even her fault that her fiancé decided to cancel the engagement, it was the fault of that homewrecker of a commoner.
Still, she had to keep a stiff upper lip. Today was going to be a hassle, but tomorrow she would be at the side of her ticket out of this dump! She took a wooden paddle and began to beat the damp clothes in order to help knock out some of the moisture as she couldn’t expect the sunlight to do all of the work for her.
Suddenly, there was a rumbling in the ground that shook her from her feet along with the sound of dirt and stone being ripped apart by some immense power. Had the Abominable King returned to finish everyone off? She slowly turned her head around and saw the mouth of a cave that had seemingly pushed its way out of the ground. The tunnel under the earth seemed to Marie like the maw of a hungry monster, ready to devour anyone who stepped inside. And yet, the siren’s call that drew her closer was so tempting. Just looking into the cavity she could somehow tell that inside it were riches beyond imagining, if only she ventured inside and claimed them.
She reached out towards the gaping hole, but before she could enter the smell of rotting meat and the groans of the risen dead from within the cavernous pit sent her running in terror. She had never seen an Undead up close, but from the stories she had heard she knew what those sounds and smells meant. As she ran from the courtyard, she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“The dead have risen again! Guards!”
As if to lend credence to her words, a large number of zombies shamble out of the cave. They made their way out in the direction of where the most living human bodies were with the insatiable desire to kill and eat, overriding any sense of cohesion and discipline. They were so far from the control of Kain or any other commander that the 55 zombies were no longer a cohesive unit and more along the lines of 55 individual zombies all acting as their own commander.
The first to arrive on the scene was the female Hero, Alice Angelica Wordsworth. She had come to check up on her pet project, the girl that she was focusing her efforts to wear down the anti-charm necklace’s protection on. Before she could locate the girl, she locked eyes with the zombies. Having had expensive perfumes imported and used regularly, she lacked the ability to smell the rotting meat and was so caught up in her own daydreams and delusions of grandeur that she didn’t notice the groaning and moaning.
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The moment she set eyes on the zombies she froze in place. The monster of a man that arrived a few months ago was bad enough, but at least that knocked her out immediately! This was…
Although Alice was frozen in place by fear, the undead and rotting risen corpses were not. As they moved closer, Alice finally was able to break free of her fear and let out an ear-piercing shriek fit for a Karen before turning and bolting like a bat out of hell. She nearly tripped over herself as she ran for her life, unknowingly saving several other nuns in the convent as she unintentionally led the zombies out of the ‘Female Only’ section of the monastery and into the ‘Gender Neutral’ section.
As she ran, she passed a few Warrior Priests and Warrior Nuns who were still in training. As they tried to register what they saw they soon realized that a Hero was running from something. They turned, expecting to see some unfathomable monstrosity that would shatter their sanity. Instead of some eldritch horror, they saw a decently-sized horde of aimless zombies.
“Brother Lysandre, go and tell the Abbot and the Abbess about this! Hurry! We will hold them back as long as we can but make haste!”
“Y-yes, Sister Mirabel. I will run with all my might!”
One of the Battle Priests that was in training obeyed the instruction of his senior and ran off as fast as his mix of chainmail, breastplate and padded cloth armor would allow.
“Then, let us show these unliving horrors what true sons and daughters of Lumina are made of. Advance! Hold the line!”
The Warrior Clergy remaining rushed towards the undead and swung their maces and war hammers like their lives depended on it. With each strike of their enchanted weapons an undead would be crushed. The threat of a mere 55 zombies was not enough to cause too much alarm in and of itself, it was the fact that the undead had appeared in the middle of a holy monastery that was the true issue. How these unholy abominations had managed to sneak in was beyond them, but if they pushed back the tide of unliving death then they might find their answer.
After a few minutes of smashing zombies, the minute horde was dispatched. The last risen corpse fell the moment that the Heroes arrived, Alice in tow and obviously in a panic.
“Where are the zombies?” Kevin asked, seemingly unaware that the rotting husks of people at the feet of the Warrior Clerics were what zombies were.
“We have defeated the horde, but now we must discover the source of this incursion.” Sister Mirabel stated bluntly.
“They… they came from the courtyard in the convent…” Sister Marie, who had arrived at the room of the Abbot and Abbess before Brother Lysandre had and informed them of the situation, spoke up.
Sister Mirabel looked past the open gate that separated the gender-neutral portion of the Sanctuary Light Monastery from the female only nunnery.
“For the time being we allow men to enter and help stop the flow of the undead.” said the Abbess.
The male Heroes looked at each other with wide grins, much to the disapproval of the clergy and Alice. It would seem that boys will be boys no matter where they are. The chance to enter a nunnery and take a gander at all the virgin women there was too much for them to not think about.
“Gi-gyah!”
Suddenly, the cry of something unfamiliar caused the whole of the group to look at the gate. Instead of a bunch of undead, a group of green-skinned diminutive humanoids with large pointed ears and beady, cruel eyes stood in the gateway. These creatures were armed with a mix of wooden, bone and stone weapons, but a few of them seemed to be carrying iron weapons that looked to have not been maintained in several years.
“Gi-gi!”
“Gyah-hi!”
“Grii-gyah hah!”
Alice fell to the ground and tried to scurry away. She knew what these creatures were and did not want them to come close. As she fled once again, she cried out as loud as she could.
“NO! I won’t become a mother of monsters! Get away from me, you filthy goblins!”